did. Did he consider it an isolated pearl in the vast corpus of the Gesta? No, he did not.
Before publishing the Orationi in materia civile e criminale N annini published in
Venice (Giolito de' Ferrari 1557 and 1560; lat~r, stili in Venice, Alla insegna della Con-cordia 1585) a larger collection of Orationi militari, raccolte da tutti i historici, where
he includes - as Carlo Santini has already pointed out (''Lettori, spettatori e pubblico nei Gesta Danorum di Saxo Grammaticus",
in the volume edited by him Tra testo e contesto. Studi di scandinavistica medievale, Roma 1994, p. 48) - five
speeches taken from those of Dorno (book II, p. 39), Torkillus (book II, p. 47-48), Britannicus (book II, p. 48-49), Frotho (book V, p. 142-143) and Eric (book V, p. 143-144) whose speech closes the Orationi militari. The very last words of the book,
however, are the author's own:
Io so che ci sono molti altri Historici latini, come Suetonio, Iustino, Floro, Eutropio, Sesto Aurelio, Cornelio nipote, e molti altri, ne' quali non hauendo trouato orationi, ne ragionamenti militari, se non pochissimi e breuissimi, però non mi è paruto opportuno mettergli qui altrimenti, perche attendo a mettere insieme i parlamenti di qualche importanza, non ho giudicato esser buono occuparmi in ogni minima cosa (p. 552 of the 1560 edition).
This closing statement leaves no doubt that Nannini ranked Saxo among the great his-torians whose works contain models of elo-q_uence. The two disciçlines were q_uite close
an d often overlapping in the Humanistic an d Renaissance tradition, that is until the crises of the «ars historiae» brought a neat separa-tion between them. Nannini, the first to in-troduce Saxo in vernacular, clearly understood what modern scholars have been trying to prove: namely that this Northen historian was nurtured by Clio and bathed in the waters of the Ti ber.
CLASSICONORROENA, 6
SCANDINAVIAN STUDIES HELD IN SICILY -1992 TO 1995
by Rudolf Simek, University of Vienna
In February 1992, Peter Springborg, Arnamagmean Institute, University of Copenhagen, spenta week at the University of Catania, at the Department of Germanic Philology, w h ere h e gave lectures on the Jelling Monuments and on Old Icelandic manuscripts.
In the following year, 1993, he also lectured at the University of Catania on the history of the Danish language, and tried - with great success - to make the students pronounce and comprehend modern Danish texts. Also in 1993, François-Xavier Dillmann lectured in Catania, and an abstract of his paper will soon be published in Classiconor-roena.
On 3rd and 4th of March 1994, Doz. Dr. Rudolf Simek, University of Vien-na/Austria, gave a series of 3 lectures (6 hours, in English) on the generai of Saga Literature at the Department of Modern Philology, University of Catania, at the in-vitation of Prof. Ute Schwab.
The first lecture was dedicated to the early history of Icelandic literature as such in its total socio-cultura! context. Starting point were the oldest manuscripts and fragments of manuscripts, rather than some fictious works of oral çoetry, as their authenticity is in many cases more than questionable. These oldest written sources date from the 12th century and represent the genres of literature available at the time: laws, liturgi-ca! and other religious literature, scientific literature (Fachprosa) and, a little later,
his-tory. To these may be added, tentatively, what evidence we have about other early genres as mentioned by texts from the 13th century. Dealing with manuscripts as the earliest source of Old Icelandic literature one has to explain, as far as possible, both the history of mentality of the Scandinavian Middle Ages as well as the physical and soci al preconditions of manuscripts produc-tion.
CLASSICONORROENA, 6
The second lecture dealt firstly with ques-tion of genre in O Id Iceiandic Iiterature, such as the historicai if not universally valid dis-tinction between Eddic an d Scaidic poetry, the various types of prose texts found in the Scandinavian Middie Ages, and finally with the subdivision of those texts that are generally classified as sagas. A criticai ex-pianation of the distinction made between Saints' sagas (hagiographic texts), Kings' sagas and Sagas of Iceianders (pseudo-his-toricai texts), Fornaidarsogur and Riddarasogur (legendary or seif-proclaimed fiction) as well as some actuai historicai texts in the medievai sense of the world, such as Gydinga saga and Breta sogur cannot be made without deaiing with the history of research in the fieid of Oid Norse-Iceiandic Studies, because the positions regarding the creation of sagas have differed wideiy during the history of saga schoiarship. The third Iecture was finally dedicated to those two genres which have mainiy earned Iceiandic saga literature a piace in the history of world literature, namely the fsiendiga sogur and the Fornaidarsogur. A criticai reading of two exempiary texts of each genre was presented to the students together with excerpts (in O Id Norse and Engiish). For the fsiendiga sogur, Grettis saga and Hrafnkels
saga were chosen as two outstanding ex-ampies of the famiiy sagas, whereas the
Orvar-Odds saga and Egils saga einhenda were taken as typicai exampies of the Fornaidarsogur; special emphasis in these readings was given to aspects of overall importance for the whoie of saga Iiterature on the one hand, on the other hand to items specific of the genres dealt with.
Both the number of students as well as their interest in Old Iceiandic Iiterature were notabie, which shows the importance of in-cluding Oid Norse Iiterature in their studies either by Iocai or by extramurai lecturers. This was further pro v ed by the attendence of the entire staff of the department at ali the Iectures, who not oniy took a Iiveiy part in the discussion but aiso continued it outside the walls of the University during their generous entertainement of the guest lec-turer.
8
In aprii 1994, Prof. Dr. Heinrich Beck, University ofBonn/Germany, gave a Iecture in German at the Academy of Science in Messina o n the topi c of Snorri Sturluson' s Vision of the Pagan Past, at the invitation of Prof. Dr. Ute Schwab.
In this monumental work in Norvegian his-tory, as presented in the Heimskringla, the Icelandic Historian Snorri Sturiuson (1178179-1241) starts his discussion of events far back in history: atthe time of the Roman Empire, when the As Odin with his tempie priests and a multitude of his people emigrates from Tyrkiand (in Asia) into the Scandinavian North and sets up dominions in Saxony, on Fyn an don Zeaiand and finai-ly in Sweden (Sigtunir). This historical event, as described by Snorri at the begin-ning of his Ynglinga saga, is taken into a mythicai dimension in the first part of his
Edda (Gylfaginning): the historical lEsir under Odin's government are earthly counterparts of the world of lEsir an d V anir gods, whose reveiation is the actual topic of the Gylfaginning. This reveiation is used by the lEsir by taking over the names of the trascendental world and by using mythoiogical names for places within their environment.
Snorri' s vision c an be described by three aspects:
a) the historical facts and the world of the heathen gods are related in a way dominated by Christian ways of thinking (the iqea of a Trinity, the idea of an All-father, the twelve disciples, etc.)
b) the euhemeristic vie w point of Snorri' s contemporaries is replaced by a relationship between gods and mankind which not only follows the Christian example, but is also proven by the course of events. He does not rationalise away the trascendental aspects of the heathen gods, but confirms it as a pointer;
c) the pagan tradition as represented in the Voluspa and its mental environment, that is to say in the sources of the Gylfaginning, is treated with respect by Snorri, who also ascribes a certain amount of historical truth to it, against the opinion of other and older authors ( e.g. the Danish historian Saxo
Gramaticus, who in this context talkes of
praestigiae and ludificationes daemonum). Snorri does not view the transition from Germanic paganism to Christianity as a cui-turai break, but rather as the fulfiment of tendency latently present in heathen times. The pagan religion had also been revealed to an Asian (the .tEsir) in a centrai part of this world and was carried north by human propagators in one the major migrations in history.
On the 1st and 2nd of March 1995, Univ.-Doz. Dr. Rudolf Simek, University of Vien-na/ Austria, gave another seri es of 3 lectures (6 hours, in English), this time on the topic of Germanic and Northern Religion and Mythology at the Department of Modern Philology, University of Catania, at the in-vitation of Prof. Ute Schwab. The first lec-ture was completely dedicated to the sources of Germani c mythology, explaning the various types of sources: medieval scholary authors such as Snorri and Saxo, other medieval texts like Scaldic and Eddic poems, foreign authors, esp. Tacitus and Caesar - explaning also the concepts of
in-terpretatio romana, inin-terpretatio germana
and interpretatio christiana, - pictorial in-formation, piace names, the names of the gods or goddesses written on ancient votive stones (matron stones), other linguistic evidence, archaeology as weli as dealing with the problems posed by sources, above ali that our supposed knowledge of the pagan Òermanic religion is heavily coloured by what we know from the mythographers Snorri and Saxo, w ho wrote over 2 centuries after the Christianization of their countries. lf we do not use these high medieval inter-pretations of paganism, the earlier sources are far less easy to interpret and far more ambivalent; therefore it should be kept in mind that we must not overestimate the source value of those late interpretations, which may or may not only be private opinions of their authors, filling gaps on their knowledge and the heathen religion. The second major problem is that we end up with a picture put together from ali these sources, over 1200 years - if we include rock-carvings, possibly 3000 years - from
CLASSICONORROENA, 6
different genres, from the Black Sea to Iceland, normaliy totaliy neglecting histori-cal developments as well as regional specialities. - Another aspect that must be kept in mind when looking at source materia! is the influence of syncretism and the multiple contacts the Germanic tribes made with other religions over a period of more than a millenium.
The second lecture was dedicated to prese n t-ing the students with a synoptic view of northern mythology as given by Snorri Stur-luson in his Edda, dealing with the heathen
Weltbild, including Midgard, Asgard und Utgard, the .tEsir and Vanir and the War between .tEsir and Vanir, some (partly con-tradicting) evidence for the veneration of these gods as seen in placenames, with heroes and half-gods; the myths about Odin, about Thor, about Loki and about Baldr, as well as the heathen concepts of cosmogony and escatology (Ragnarok). When present-ing such a synoptic view it must be con-tinously stressed that we not only deal with the genuin mythology of the pagan times (if it ever was as systematic as that) but to a greater extent with works of literature, giving mythography its literary shape. The third lecture finally dealt with the religious life in pre-Christian Germanic Europe, presupposing the answer to two questions: when c an w e speak of the popula-tion of Northern Europe as Germanic (and therefore tacitly assuming some sort of con-tinuity in religious beliefs from then on), and secondly: What is the subject of the history of religion? Gods? Holiness? The powers? The numinous experience? Cult practises? Folk beliefs? - Of many cult practises we have only late and most certainly garbled descriptions, such as about baptismal cus-toms (if they did indeed exist), sacrifice and tempes, ritual feasting, marriage and fertilty rites. Of others we have predominantely ar-chaeological evidence, such as justice and punishment and burial customs, which also tell us something about apre-Christian con-cept of soul, of an afterlife of spirits and ghosts, but amulets and rune carvings also inform us about magie and spelis, even thought most of the spells are transmitted on
CLASSICONORROENA, 6
the vellum of the Christian manuscripts. Due to the availability of an overhead-projector it was possible to show the stu-dents about l 00 illustrations of maps an d objects, which gratly added to the effect of the lectures as the topic was heavily depen-dant on pictorial information. Despite the times of the lectures early in the morning an d in the evening, ali classes were extremely well attended and the students showed an increasing willingness to contribute with question; this was additionally helped by the fact that Prof. Schwab was at the same date teaching on rune-magic which resulted in a fruitful dialogue even during the course of the last lecture, when dealing with questions of magie an d spells. One student contribued the fact to the discussion of pre-Germanic European beliefs of the megalithic era by pointing out that even Sicily has at least one dolmen to testify the presence of the Western European megalithic sea-people, a fact not hitherto noted in historical hand-books; this contribution was followed up on the days following the lecture and the dol-men found on the coast near Avola in East-ern Sicily.
For ali those lectures, thanks must be said firstly to Prof. Dr. Ute Schwab, for the in-vitation and organisation of the lectures, as well as t o the Italian Foreign Office an d Pro f. Selo-Alemanni for their generous financial support of the guest professorships men-tioned.
IL RITORNO IN ISLANDA: 11
Nfunda
Al~oj6ctlega Fornsagna~oingict ..
di Giovanna Salvucci, Macerata
Dal 31 luglio al 6 agosto 1994 si è svolta, nella terra delle saghe, la "9th International Saga Conference".
Organizzata nella seconda maggiore città d'Islanda, Akureyri, situata all'inizio di quel Eyjafjordur che ha visto aggirarsi per le sue rive tanti personaggi delle saghe, la Conferenza ha fatto rivivere a molti studiosi, nella cornice delle luminose notti d'estate, delle vaste distese di lava e dei fiumi azzurri
10
affollati di salmoni, quello spettacolo di colori troppe volte soltanto immaginato leggendo le pagine in bianco e nero delle saghe. Tema di questa nona conferenza sono state le Samtfdarsogur, cioè le saghe di argomento contemporaneo alla loro redazione scritta.
La maggior parte dei 77 interventi raccolti nei due volumi di Preprints ha avuto come oggetto le Biskupa sogur, le Heilagra
manna sogur e la Sturlunga saga, l'opera più legata al periodo della storia islandese conosciuto col nome di Sturlungaold (c. 1183-1264). Seguendo gli sviluppi che la ricerca ha avuto in questi ultimi anni, molti autori hanno analizzato la particolare situazione politica e sociale che pose fine
*
alla "Repubblica" islandese a favore del re di Norvegia attraverso il tessuto narrativo e le metafore utilizzate dai compilatori della
Sturlunga saga, fra i 9uali risalta Sturla P6rdarson, autore della Islendinga saga. Lois Bragg ad esempio, nel suo "Disfigurement, Disability, an d Dis-integration in Sturlunga saga"
(Preprints pp. 123-137), ricorda i personaggi affetti da malformazioni fisiche e cita il caso di POrgils Skardi (POrgils dal labbro leporino), la cui mancata integrazione sociale a causa della sua anomalia preconizza la disgregazione della società ali' epoca degli Sturlungar.
L'intervento di Jesse Byock, invece, dal titolo "State an d Statelessness in Early lceland" (155-169), torna ad analizzare gli inizi della civiltà islandese, che condivise alcune caratteristiche delle società primitive pur non essendo stata fondata da gruppi di cultura primitiva (alla stessa epoca infatti gli stessi gruppi fondavano la Normandia, stabilivano il Danelaw, avevano contatti con l'impero bizantino, ecc.). Il passaggio da un'Islanda che, come afferma Byock, era inizialmente tesa alla de-stratificazione sociale, a quell'Islanda che abbandonò la sua peculiare struttura in favore della monarchia norvegese, viene descritto nell'articolo di Armann Jakobsson "Nokkur ord um hugmyndir islendinga um konungsvald fyrir 1262" (31-42) in cui l'autore esamina il giudizio islandese sulle monarchie straniere
